We work with New York photographers, agencies, e-commerce brands and real estate firms who need high-volume retouching without adding headcount. The common thread among our NYC clients is deadline pressure: campaigns, listings and menu launches that cannot wait three days for images.
The industries we support in New York
Fashion and apparel brands send lookbook and ecommerce shoots requiring skin retouching, garment cleanup and ghost mannequin work. Restaurants and hospitality groups send menu and delivery-platform photography. Real estate agencies send apartment interiors needing window pulls, vertical correction and sky replacement. Studios and agencies outsource overflow retouching when a campaign lands.
Overnight turnaround, literally
Cebu runs twelve hours ahead of New York for most of the year. Images you upload at the end of a Manhattan working day are edited while you sleep and waiting when you open your laptop. For agencies, that effectively adds a second shift without hiring anyone.
This is the single most useful thing we offer New York clients, and it is purely a function of geography rather than anything clever on our part.
Working with studios and agencies
A significant share of our New York work is white-label: we edit, you deliver to your client under your own name. We match an existing house style from reference files rather than imposing our own look, which matters when images have to sit alongside work your in-house team produced.
For ongoing relationships we keep a documented style guide per client, so the fiftieth batch matches the first without re-briefing.
Real estate work specifically
New York apartment photography has its own difficulties. Small rooms shot wide show converging verticals. Windows blow out against dim interiors, so the view disappears. Radiators, air conditioning units and fire escapes dominate frames in ways they do not in suburban listings.
We correct verticals, blend bracketed exposures so the window view and the room interior are both visible, and clean up distractions without misrepresenting the property, which matters given how closely listing photography is scrutinised.
Fashion calendar, campaigns and e-commerce launches
New York's fashion industry works to a fixed rhythm, with New York Fashion Week running in February and September and collections, lookbooks and e-commerce launches clustered around them. The weeks either side are when retouching demand peaks and when in-house teams are most stretched.
For brands and agencies, the useful approach is to agree a style and a batch schedule before the season starts. Lookbook retouching, e-commerce product shots and campaign selects can then flow through in planned batches, instead of competing for the same few days of editing time.
Restaurants and delivery-platform photography
New York restaurants depend heavily on delivery and reservation platforms such as Uber Eats, DoorDash and Grubhub, where a dish's photograph is often the only thing a customer sees before ordering. Food photos shot quickly in a working kitchen usually need help: warmer, more natural colour, cleaned-up plates and surfaces, and backgrounds tidied so the dish is the focus.
Consistency matters as much as individual images. A menu where every dish was photographed in different light looks disorganised on a delivery app, while a set edited to one look makes the whole menu more appealing. The same principle applies to hotel, bar and venue photography used on booking sites and social media.
New York property listings
Property photography in New York is judged closely by buyers and renters who browse many listings at once on portals such as StreetEasy. Beyond the vertical correction and window balancing described above, common requests include:
- Consistent brightness and colour across every room in a listing.
- Removing personal items, clutter and photographer reflections from mirrors and glass.
- Lens correction for the distortion that comes from shooting small rooms wide.
- Exterior clean-up such as removing parked vehicles or temporary signage, where it does not misrepresent the property.
Accurate presentation is essential. Editing should make a space look clean and well lit, not larger or different from what a viewer will find in person.
How working together usually runs
1. Brief and references
You send a few images with a short brief and, ideally, one or two reference images showing the finished look you want.
2. Test edit
We edit those images and you review them. Adjustments at this stage are normal and help pin down the exact style.
3. Style guide
The agreed look is written into a style guide covering colour, skin, background, cropping and output sizes.
4. Ongoing batches
You upload new work at the end of your day and collect the edited files the next morning, with the same standard applied every time.
5. Feedback loop
Any revisions are noted in the style guide so the same correction is not needed twice.
How to prepare your files
- Send RAW files or full-resolution exports rather than compressed copies.
- Group images by shoot, product or property so each batch is edited consistently.
- Mark the selects you want retouched if you only need a subset of a shoot.
- Include brand guidelines or reference images, especially for white-label work.
- Note any deadline in your own time zone so it is never misread.
Walkthrough: retouching an e-commerce fashion shoot
Here is how a typical e-commerce apparel shoot moves through editing, from raw files to images ready for a product page.
Step 1: Selects and grouping
The shoot is grouped by product and view, such as front, back, detail and on-model, so each product's images are edited together.
Step 2: Colour matching
Garment colour is matched to the physical sample or your reference, then applied consistently across every image of that product, including on-model shots in different light.
Step 3: Garment clean-up
Lint, loose threads, unwanted creases and clips or pins are removed, and the garment's shape is tidied while keeping its real fit.
Step 4: Model retouching
Skin is retouched to your agreed level, flyaway hair is tidied and distractions are removed, keeping the model looking natural.
Step 5: Background and crop
Backgrounds are cleaned or replaced, and every image is cropped to your template so products line up perfectly on category pages.
Step 6: Export
Files are exported at your required sizes and named to your system, ready to upload.
Common mistakes we see in New York shoots
- Inconsistent crops across a category page, which makes a store look disorganised.
- Garment colours that drift between flat-lay and on-model images of the same item.
- Over-retouched skin that conflicts with a brand's natural, inclusive positioning.
- Food photos with colour casts from restaurant lighting, which make dishes look unappetising.
- Property photos with converging verticals and blown-out windows that hide the view buyers are paying for.
When outsourcing makes sense for a New York team
Outsourcing works best when retouching is a bottleneck rather than a creative differentiator. If your in-house retouchers spend most of their time on repetitive clean-up, such as background removal, colour matching and basic skin work, moving that volume to an external team frees them for the hero images and creative direction that really need them.
It also helps with uneven demand. Fashion seasons, holiday campaigns and quarterly content pushes create peaks that are expensive to staff for permanently. An external team that already knows your style guide can absorb those peaks and scale back afterwards, without the cost of hiring for the busiest weeks of the year.
The key is a clear style guide and a consistent point of contact. Once the standard is documented, an external team can produce work that sits seamlessly alongside your in-house output.
What affects price and turnaround
Price depends mainly on the type of retouching and the volume. Basic e-commerce clean-up costs less per image than high-end beauty or campaign retouching, and a steady monthly volume is priced differently from occasional overflow work. Turnaround is set by volume and complexity: standard batches usually fit the overnight cycle, while very large shoots or detailed retouching may need longer. Send a sample with your expected volume for an accurate quote.
Questions to ask any retouching partner
Whether you work with us or another team, these questions help you judge whether an outsourced retoucher fits a New York workflow:
- Can you match our existing style from reference images, and will you test it first?
- How do you keep batches consistent when different editors work on them?
- What is your realistic turnaround for our typical volume, including peaks?
- How are revisions handled, and how quickly are they returned?
- Can you work white-label, with no branding or contact with our clients?
- How are files transferred, stored and deleted after delivery?
Clear answers to these, and a test edit on your own images, tell you far more than a portfolio of someone else's work.
A sample brief
A short brief makes the first batch much smoother. For example: fifty e-commerce images of knitwear, front, back and detail views; pure white background with no shadow; colour matched to the attached swatches; light skin retouching to match the attached references; crops to our 4:5 template; files named by style code; delivery by 9am Eastern.
Services New York businesses use most
- Fashion photo editing: lookbook, campaign and e-commerce retouching, including garment clean-up and colour matching.
- E-commerce photo editing: clean product images, ghost mannequin work and consistent catalogue crops.
- Food photo editing: menu and delivery-app images with natural, appetising colour.
- Real estate photo editing: exposure blending, vertical correction and window pulls for listings.
- Portrait editing: headshots and editorial portraits retouched to a natural, professional standard.
Key takeaways
- The time difference turns a New York evening upload into a next-morning delivery for most standard batches.
- A written style guide is what keeps outsourced work consistent with your in-house team's output.
- Plan fashion and campaign retouching around the season, not in the final week.
- Property edits should improve light and clarity without misrepresenting the space.
Frequently asked questions
Can you deliver edits overnight for New York clients?
For most standard batches, yes. Because of the time difference, files uploaded at the end of a New York working day are edited during our day and can be ready the next morning. Very large or highly detailed jobs may need a longer schedule, which we agree in advance.
Do you offer white-label retouching for studios and agencies?
Yes. We edit to your house style and you deliver the work to your own clients under your name. A style guide and reference images keep results consistent with your in-house team's work.
Can you match our existing retouching style?
Yes. Send a selection of finished images that represent your style, and we will match them on a test batch before starting regular work, adjusting until the result sits naturally alongside your existing images.
Do you edit real estate photos for New York listings?
Yes, including vertical correction, window and exposure blending, colour consistency across rooms and removal of distractions, always keeping the property accurately represented.
How do we send large shoots?
Use our upload page or a shared cloud folder from a service you already use. For regular work, a shared folder per project keeps batches organised on both sides.
How do you keep our client work confidential?
White-label work is kept confidential: we never contact your clients, do not publish their images, and use files only for the project. We can also work under a confidentiality agreement if your contracts require one.
Can you handle rush jobs?
Often, yes. Tell us the volume and deadline as early as possible and we will confirm what is achievable before you send the files, so there are no surprises.
Try it on your own files
Send three images from a recent shoot with a short note on the look you want. We will return them edited to your specification, and you can judge whether the quality and turnaround fit how you work.
